I'm sure anyone who has played for the club in the past 25 years would feel the same.

But that's the reality now after the SPL clubs booted them out on Wednesday at Hampden. It's now up to the SFL to dictate which league the Ibrox club will play in.

It's either the First or Third Division. Ally McCoist admitted yesterday that he'd be willing to drop down three levels.

The Ibrox supporters have also made it clear to Charles Green they want to start in the bottom tier of the game.

And you know what? After years of supporting other clubs in Scotland by visiting away grounds in their thousands, they deserve to be listened to.

But ultimately? Their views, as well as Ally's, won't matter a jot and they'll have to go where they're told at next week's SFL summit.

I can totally understand why the fans want to start in the Third Division. They've accepted their club was in the wrong and want to take their medicine.

Remember, the fans are the innocent party in all of this - they have done nothing wrong.

And after everything that's gone on in the past couple of weeks, they'll feel everyone in Scottish football has been lining up to have a pop at them.

They've even had their pre-season trips cancelled. Supporters will feel angry at how they've been treated by their own club and others. They will feel they owe the game in this country nothing.

But I would urge Coisty and the supporters to cast their resentment aside and help SAVE the game before it's too late.

I believe the SFL chairmen will buckle under pressure from the SFA and SPL and accept proposals to parachute Rangers into the First Division.

If they don't? I agree with Stewart Regan that Scottish football faces a slow death.

I know it's not what the Rangers fans want. But the game will face Armageddon if Rangers are in the Third Division and that's why they must be allowed entry into the First.

The standard of football in this country has declined massively since I stopped playing at Ibrox. But if the club faces three years out of the top flight it will go down rapidly again.

Even if they win the three SFL divisions on the trot, the level of quality will have dropped by another 20 per cent in that time.

Every other club will have had to make huge cut-backs with no TV money on the table.

Celtic won't need to spend on top-notch players any more. They can also cash in on their star men like Gary Hooper and Beram Kayal as they won't be needed.

Dundee United boss Peter Houston said this week he has signed four players in the summer and that's his limit. What's it going to be like for him in two years time?

If Scottish football had been buoyant and in a fiscally sound position, of course, Rangers should have had to start again in the Third Division.

But it's not. It's all about pounds, shillings and pence. There is a severe lack of investment and the last thing we need is the standard of football to drop even further.

By the letter of the law, it should be the Third Division but this isn't an ordinary case. Rangers and Celtic ARE Scottish football.

And when one of them is out of the top league for three years, the rest of it will collapse.

There has been a steady drip of Scottish talent going south of the border in the last few years. Due to circumstances at Ibrox, Steven Whittaker, Steven Naismith, Jamie Ness and John Fleck are the latest to sign for English clubs.

If Rangers drop to the Third Division, that drip will become a flood of young Scots leaving the game up here.

Surely that can't be good for anyone?

Regan, along with Neil Doncaster at the SPL have faced a lot of criticism, some of it justified. But those two have walked into a tornado.

Let's be clear, the only people responsible are the men who have been running Rangers in the last 10 years.

What I would say to Regan and Doncaster is this - is this not the ideal time to restructure the game and have three leagues under one umbrella?

That would help solve the problem. Rangers would be demoted to the middle tier as punishment and no-one would complain.

It would also bring an end to the constant meetings being held by the individual governing bodies.